Draft Appeal of the Russian Organising Committee to the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy, the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad, and the Foreign Committee of the Bund

Infulfilment of the decision passed by a conference of the Russian
      Social-Democratic Labour Party in the spring of 1902, theOrganising
      Committeeproposes to the League of Russian Revolutionary
      Social-Democracy, the Union of Russian Social-Democrats

      Abroad,[1]and the Foreign Committee of the Bund the formation of a foreign division
      of the Organising Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party.

Thefunctions of this foreign division of the Russian Organising Committee
      should he as follows:

1)elaboration of the question as to how Social-Democratic organisations
      abroad should be represented at the congress. The final decision of this
      question depends upon the Russian Organising Committee and then upon the
      congress itself; 2) assistance from abroad in the arrangement of the
      congress (for example, finances, passports, etc.), and 3) preparation for
      the unification of the Social-Democratic organisations abroad, which is so
      vitally necessary in the interests of the Party and of the
      Social-Democratic labour movement in Russia in general.

[1]The League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroadwas
	founded in October 1901 on Lenin’s initiative. Affiliated to the League
	were theIskraforeign organisation and theSotsial
	Demokratorganisation, which included the Emancipation of Labour
	group.

Formationof the League was preceded by an attempt to get these
      organisations join the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad, made in
      June 1901 at the Geneva Conference. A resolution was worked out at this
      conference (”the agreement on principles”) recognising the need to rally
      all Social-Democratic forces of Russia, and especially to unite all
      Social-Democratic organisations abroad, and condemning opportunism in all
      its shades and manifestations. The unification was to have been given
      official form at the “Unity” Congress, which was held on
      September 21-22 (Octo ber 4-5), 1901. When it became clear at the Congress
      that the Union still adhered to its opportunist stand, the revolutionary
      section of the Congress (members of theIskraorganisation and
      theSotsial-Demokratgroup) announced that they did not consider
      union possible and walked out. Soon afterwards they formed the League
      Abroad, whose Rules stated that it was the foreign section of theIskraorganisation. The League recruitedIskraadherents
      from among Russian Social-Democrats living abroad, gave financialsupport toIskra, organised delivery of the paper to Russia and
      published Marxist popular literature. It also brought out several
      bulletins and pamphlets, including Lenin’sTo the Rural Poor.

TheR.S.D.L.P.’s Second Congress endorsed the League as the only Party
      organisation abroad with the status of a committee, and indicated that it
      could give support to the Russian Social-Democratic movement only through
      persons and groups appointed by the Party’s Central Committee.

Followingthe Second Congress, the Mensheviks entrenched them selves in
      the League and launched a struggle against Lenin and the Bolsheviks. At
      the League’s second conference in October 1903, the Mensheviks got new
      Rules adopted, directed against the Party Rules approved by the Second
      Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. After this the League, which existed until
      1905, became a stronghold of Menshevism.

TheUnion of Russian Social-Democrats Abroadwas founded in 1894
      in Geneva, on the initiative of the Emancipation of Labour group, and had
      its own press where it printed revolutionary literature. At first the
      Emancipation of Labour group guided the Union and edited its
      publications. The Union issued theRabotnikmiscellanies andListok “Rabolnika”(see Note 107), and published
      Lenin’sExplanation of the Law on Fines(1897), Plekhanov’sNew Drive Against Russian Social-Democracy(1897), etc. The First
      Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., held in March 1898, recognised the Union as
      the Party’s representative abroad. As time proceeded, the opportunist
      elements—the “economists,” or so-called “young”
      group—gained the upper hand in the Union. At the first conference of
      the Union, held in Zurich in November 1898, the Emancipation of Labour
      group announced their refusal to edit Union publications, with the
      exception of No. 5-6 ofRabotnikand Lenin’s pamphlets,The
      Tasks of the Russian Social-DemocratsandThe New FactoryLaw,which the group undertook to publish. From then on, the Union
      publishedRabocheye Dyelo, a magazine of the “economists.”
      The Emancipation of Labour group finally broke with the Union and left its
      ranks in April 1900, at the Union’s second conference held in Geneva, when
      the Emancipation of Labour group and its supporters left the conference
      and established an independentSotsial-Demokratorganisation. In
      1903 the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. passed a decision to disband
      the Union (seeThe C.P.S.U. in Resolutions and Decisions of Its
      Congresses, Conferences, and Plenary Meetings of the Central
      Committee, Part I, 1954, p. 56).